Scientist I, Discovery

Basecamp Research; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Impactful Mission

Collaborative Culture

High Growth

Comprehensive Benefits

Job summary

Basecamp Research in Cambridge, MA seeks a Scientist I to develop transformative gene editing and cellular engineering solutions. You will leverage biodiversity knowledge and work with Data Science and AI teams to tackle challenging preclinical problems.

With a PhD or related MSc, you will design, validate, and implement new assays, and contribute to the lab's growth and methods. The role offers collaboration with Boston and London offices and a passion for innovative biotech.

Qualifications

• PhD or MSc with strong wet-lab experience in gene editing and cellular engineering.
• Hands-on experience with high-throughput cloning and DNA constructs for screening.
• Proven ability in mammalian cell culture, transfection, and cell-line generation.
• Familiarity with emerging gene editing analytics enabling regulatory approval.
• Experience with DNA/RNA extraction, PCR, ddPCR, NGS library prep, and QC.
• Excellent communication skills for internal and external stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to strategy for design, build, test cycles of novel enzymes and gene editing tools.
• Build and screen plasmid libraries; develop cloning workflows at scale.
• Quantify editing outcomes using ddPCR, qPCR, flow-cytometry and NGS readouts.
• Optimize hits for activity and specificity using human cells to develop leads.
• Foster a open scientific culture and ensure lab SOPs and documentation.

Skills

Gene editing

NGS assay development

Protein engineering

Cell therapy

High-throughput cloning

Mammalian cell culture

Transfection

Cell-line generation

DNA/RNA extraction

PCR

ddPCR

NGS library prep

QC

Communication skills

Education

PhD in molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, bioengineering, or life-sciences field

MSc with equivalent hands-on lab experience

Tools

Flow cytometry

NGS instrumentation

Job description

Basecamp Research is building frontier AI for therapeutic design. We believe the future of medicine lies in reprogramming the body to repair itself, and we design the models and the medicines to teach it how.

Our EDEN models are trained on BaseData, the world's largest proprietary genomic dataset, with over 10B genes collected through partnerships in more than 30 countries across all seven continents. This gives our AI models access to genetic diversity that doesn't exist in public databases, and enables EDEN to design cell and gene therapies, enzymes, and peptides directly from information about a disease.

In September 2026 we closed an oversubscribed $140M Series C led by S32, with participation from NVIDIA, Anthropic's Anthology Fund, Catalio, European Tech Collective, Firebrand River Capital, King Philanthropies, NATO Innovation Fund, NVentures (NVIDIA's venture arm), Redalpine, Rockefeller Foundation, Singular, Sovereign AI and True Ventures. We have offices and labs in London and Boston, we partner with biopharma companies and academic institutions worldwide, and our work has been recognised by Fast Company's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Biotech, the FT-backed Sifted AI100 list of Europe's leading AI startups as well as Barclays Eagle Labs Ones to watch, AI100.

At Basecamp Research, we pride ourselves on being a lean collaborative and global team with extremely specialist and unique skills. Our biologists, engineers, ML scientists and field explorers are united by a sense of adventure and the belief that AI, biology and data, will result in new medicines for patients who have few options today.

The Role

We are seeking a highly capable and proactive Scientist I to join our Cambridge, MA team. In this role, you will leverage our proprietary biodiversity knowledge to develop transformative solutions in gene editing and cellular engineering.

You are an energetic and highly motivated scientist with broad experience in gene editing, NGS assay development, and protein engineering. You're comfortable with cutting-edge tools in molecular biology, cellular engineering, and high-throughput screening, with demonstrated expertise in developing and productionizing new assays. This is a collaborative position working closely with our Data Science and AI teams to tackle some of the most exciting and unique challenges in the field.

Key Responsibilities

Contribute to new methods for discovery and engineering of novel gene editing tools. You will work closely with other team members. Responsibilities include:

• Contribute to strategy for design, build, test cycles of novel protein enzymes, with a strong emphasis on discovery, validation, and engineering of novel gene editing tools;
• Build and screen plasmid libraries, and develop the cloning workflows that let us do it at scale;
• Quantify editing outcomes using ddPCR, qPCR, flow-cytometry and NGS readouts.
• Optimise hits for activity and specificity using human primary cells and cell lines to develop leads for therapeutic development;
• Contribute to an open and high-integrity scientific culture at Basecamp Research;
• Establish strong documentation practices and lab SOPs as a founding member of the lab team.

Required Skills and Experience

• A PhD in molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, bioengineering, or a life-sciences related field, or an MSc with equivalent hands-on laboratory experience.
• Experience with gene editing, NGS assay development, protein engineering and cell therapy;
• Experience with high-throughput methods of cloning and producing DNA constructs for cellular screening;
• Experience with mammalian cell culture, transfection, and cell-line generation;
• Knowledge of emerging technologies in gene editing and on/off-target analytics that enable regulatory approval;
• Expertise with DNA/RNA extraction, PCR, ddPCR, NGS library preparation and QC
• Excellent communication skills to both internal and external stakeholders

Advantageous Skills and Experience

• Experience contributing to a preclinical cell therapy program (in vivo or ex vivo);
• Expertise in flow cytometry using both antibody panels and fluorescent reporters;
• Experience developing novel methods for gene editing off-target analytics using both long and short-read sequencing;
• Mechanistic understanding of gene editing tools, including nucleases, base editors, transposons, retrotransposons, and recombinases; Ability to reason about proteins as molecular machines;
• Experience integrating AI protein design tools with high-throughput wet lab screening methodologies;
• Fluency in NGS instrumentation, basic bioinformatics tools, and traceable data pipelines.
• Proactive Problem-Solving: A proactive, resourceful, and independent mindset. You take initiative to identify problems or inefficiencies and act on them. You’re the kind of person who spots an issue and rallies the right people to fix it before it escalates.
• Adaptability: Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change. Our environment evolves quickly – you should thrive in a dynamic setting and be flexible in adjusting plans, while maintaining a positive, can-do attitude.
• Ownership & Drive: High degree of ownership over your work. You care about outcomes and reliably follow through on tasks and take pride in delivering quality results.

What we offer in return

• Impactful Mission: This is a rare opportunity to do work that genuinely matters. You'll join a talented, fast-moving team, access unique biological datasets at scale, and see your contributions shape real breakthroughs in AI and curative therapeutics.
• Collaborative Culture: You'll be surrounded by world-class engineers, scientists, and researchers who care deeply about their work and about each other. With offices in Boston and London, we've built a flexible, cross-functional environment where personal development and real ownership aren't just talking points.
• High Growth: We truly believe in investing our top talent, we make coaching available to team members during steep growth journeys and we have twice yearly promotion opportunities. People who are really successful here own it and go directly to solve problems at pace and we ensure reward increases with impact.
• Comprehensive Benefits: We've built a benefits package people value. That means competitive salary, equity, and healthcare so strong that most employees' family members opt into our plan over their own. We also offer Carrot Fertility with IVF stipend, 401(k), life insurance, and more.

Salary range for this role is depending on skills and experience: $110K - $140K base